Video: Warren Buffett on Card Check
posted at 1:05 pm on March 9, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama made a lot of hay over the support he received from Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world and a stock-market savant. Obama used it to show that he held no animus to free markets and private industry. I wonder if Obama is ready to take his advice on Card Check as well? Here’s Buffett today on CNBC:
Card Check would be an unmitigated disaster for the economy even in the best of times. As we reported last week, it’s an exponentially worse disaster during a severe recession. Even an Obama supporter like Buffett understands that much.
Ben Smith thinks this might be a body blow for Card Check, defining it as an effort to kill secret ballots. Let’s hope.
Previous posts on Card Check:
- Video: Blue Dog speaks out against Card Check
- Conference call: Rep. John Kline on Card Check
- The Ed Morrissey Show: Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar, Card Check; John Taylor, Getting Off Track
- Three Dems wavering on Card Check in the Senate?
- Obama tells unions that Card Check will pass this year
- CPAC Interview: Card Check
- Obama moving away from fear-based politics?
- Secret ballots for workers in Mexico, but not the US?
- Will Stern strong-arm unions to join the SEIU?
- Video: Labor officials can’t explain why they need to dump the secret ballot
- Card check a dead letter?
- Audio: Sharpton opposing Card Check?
- Card Check loses a vote? Perhaps
- Video: Blago, SEIU, and Card Check
- DeMint conference call: Card Check, bailouts
- Card Check: A direct pipeline to corruption and abuse
- Can Obama get Democrats to support Card Check?
- Video: The Card Check ad CBS doesn’t want you to see
- Irony escapes the House Democratic Caucus
- Guess who used the secret ballot … again?
- Video: Meet Union Boss Bill
- USA Today: Stop Card Check …
- Video: McGovern on Card Check
- George McGovern to fight Card Check in debate ad
- Video: What if Congress passed Card Check for all elections?
- FRC Action Summit: Barbara Comstock on EFCA
- George McGovern: Stop Card Check
- Where did the SEIU get $150 million for politics?
- Right Online Conference: John Fund
- Maybe this is why they need Card Check?
- Video: “I Hate Heroes”
- Johnny Sac takes on the unions
Blowback
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Where’s AP been recently?
lorien1973 on March 9, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Will the Dow be under 6,000 by the end of the week?
Buffet will be ignored, he was useful when he was needed, now he will be ignored, and probably not asked that question again.
right2bright on March 9, 2009 at 1:08 PM
short and to the point. methinks momentum against this abomination is about ready to take off. let’s see how many dissenter, er, patriots there are out there!
GoodSamaritan on March 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Rush played this Buffet interview. Buffet did not support Card Check, Cap and Trade, and berated executives. Why did you support this guy? He said he was going to do the first two and his party has a history of doing the second.
WashJeff on March 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Card check is vital to the democrats. Michigan is gone for all practical purposes. The unions can only survive by taking over the foreign carmaking plants in the south, and Wal Mart, and card check is the only route to overturn right to work laws to enable this.
Vashta.Nerada on March 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM
I watched that. He was building up Obama out of one side of his mouth and saying he wasn’t for most of the individual Obama programs out of the other side.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Meet Bammy’s new advisor, Jimmy Buffet.
We’re all going to be wastin’ away in Margaritaville, where Bammy’s going to be buyin’ all you can drink, as long as you are a feckless, hopeless loser (aka “Obama Voter”).
If you actually be producin’ somethin, congratulations!
Bammy will be a hittin’ you up to pay for the others drinkin’.
NoDonkey on March 9, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Wealth destruction continues to march on
Kini on March 9, 2009 at 1:12 PM
AP is trapped near the inner circle of thought.
Movie quote contest. Name the movie?
WashJeff on March 9, 2009 at 1:13 PM
You really really really have to conclude that Obama means to destroy the economy, means to destroy capitalism, means to destroy freedom. Statistically speaking at least someone on his staff should have guessed one right answer so far! No one can be this big a looser by accident!
lm10001 on March 9, 2009 at 1:18 PM
But – union controlled businesses are doing so well.
TooTall on March 9, 2009 at 1:18 PM
That would be Defending Your Life, with Rip Torn saying that line to a confused Albert Brooks.
Doughboy on March 9, 2009 at 1:18 PM
WashJeff
“Defending Your Life”…. me thinks
MNDavenotPC on March 9, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Obama statement:
“This is not the Warren Buffet I know”
Communism folks
Plain & Simple
I know many business people and they are not communist.
I know many business people who are sitting out this president.
I will be hard to create any jobs without companies.
The government cannot create industry and jobs.
They can try by fabricating make-work programs.
These are not sustainable and are doomed to fail.
What does the Federal Government run that makes money?
Don’t say the IRS – they just take money.
Once you get 25% unemployment and GDP shinks 10% per year
then what more proof do you need that Obama is a complete idiot?
izoneguy on March 9, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Well that is exactly what it is – and effort to kill secret ballots and make the United States more like North Korea.
MB4 on March 9, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Corporate vs unions.
The unions will win this one with secret ballots as the compromise.
getalife on March 9, 2009 at 1:20 PM
(emphasis mine)
Buffet supported Obama because it was hip thing to do and would get him invited to all the cool-kid parties in NYC and elsewhere.
From Oracle of Omaha to Orifice of Omaha?
C’mon, Warren, jump off the bandwagon.
BuckeyeSam on March 9, 2009 at 1:21 PM
Give him credit. I heard it one Rush.
JellyToast on March 9, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Maybe Obama is using the North Korean model. Maybe we can call it “Dear Leader Obama’s mini-me songbun”.
In the aftermath of the Korean War, North Korea imposed the notion of “songbun” on its citizenry. The poor and shiftless for being poor and shiftless had “good” songbun, and today they are the privileged class for having failed most impressively. The successful in North Korea were demonized for being that way, and today they are the bottom caste in a society that has committed economic suicide right before our eyes.
So while it’s surely a reach to suggest the U.S. is going the way of North Korea, it’s also true that bad policy has a way of slowly wrecking societies over time. At present, with the federal government creating incentives whereby companies will be rewarded by the tax code for not laying off unproductive employees, and just the same where irresponsible home buyers are being sanctified for being irresponsible, the U.S. political class is imposing its own, minor form of songbun; these actions signaling our nation’s long-term economic decline.
- John Tamny
MB4 on March 9, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Exactly.
Mr. D on March 9, 2009 at 1:23 PM
You do know, of course, that the issue here IS the secret ballot?
genso on March 9, 2009 at 1:23 PM
You are correct! Yessss!
Now will AP come back more enlighted?
WashJeff on March 9, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Dear Leader Obama’s songbun system:
The population of Dear Leader Barack Obama’s coming Democratic People’s Republic of America can be roughly divided into three tiers, and ones place in these tiers is called songbun. An individuals songbun is based on ones position at the time of Obama’s ascendancy from questionable circumstances of birth to presidential occupation: party members, largely comprised of the capos of Reid, Pelosi and Kennedy and their sub-capos, are the elite; people who helped to bankrupt the nation while lining their own pockets are at the next level in the hierarchy and often have high positions in congress or are appointed to cabinet positions and other high offices; the final group is comprised of an as yet to be determined number of distinct classes, each with lower songbun then the next. Conservative talk show hosts and bloggers and people who still believe in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of individual rights or in the integrity of the ballot or in the soon to be outdated U.S. Constitution have the lowest songbun, and consequentially occupy a role analogous to India’s untouchables.
MB4 on March 9, 2009 at 1:25 PM
Exactly. What the economy needs is a means to ensure the perpetual existence of institutions (unions) that will extort crippling legacy costs for all industries.
And someone please explain the need for governmental employees to have unions. Aren’t Dems and Obama assuring us that government can solve everything for our benefit?
BuckeyeSam on March 9, 2009 at 1:25 PM
The measure is designed to eliminate secret ballots. If the secret ballots remain intact…how does the union side win?
amerpundit on March 9, 2009 at 1:25 PM
“Video no longer available.”
Hmmm.
Meric1837 on March 9, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Uh, the whole point of card check is to eliminate secret ballot voting. Ed provided a list of links as long as your arm. Try reading some of those.
Mr. D on March 9, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Look how well the Public Schools are doing. Their market share/level of service rivals my local cable company?
Oh wait, I hate my local cable company. They suck.
Because they have a monopoly.
Imagine if the Big 3 get the same sort of monopolized power, that the Democrats have obtained for our ridiculously overfunded, woefully underperforming, public “school” system?
We’ll be driving the 2010 Yugo if we’re lucky. Most of us will be forced into monopolized public “transportation” like Amtrak.
The good news is, there will be a lot more walking and we’ll all lose weight.
NoDonkey on March 9, 2009 at 1:27 PM
I don’t think he does. And maybe in his alternate universe it isn’t.
MB4 on March 9, 2009 at 1:27 PM
Just a friendly reminder that Warren bought a few million shares of Bank of America when it was $55.
angryed on March 9, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Reminds me of Doug Kmiec. I hope the families of both men have good powers of attorney, because both are showing serious signs of dementia, IMHO. If they could fall for Obama, they could probably fall for the Nigerian spam scam or something.
funky chicken on March 9, 2009 at 1:29 PM
So you are saying I should take his investment advice in this climate? /sarc
WashJeff on March 9, 2009 at 1:30 PM
He’s just confused because of his concern for the mental health of our dear President.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Buffett has definitely slipped a bit. Soros/Obama has been kicking his butt for the past 6 months.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Recharging his batteries, writing the headlines.
steveegg on March 9, 2009 at 1:35 PM
I pretty much made it clear to my small cadre of people long ago that if they want to go union, I’ll become a one-man operation.
Bishop on March 9, 2009 at 1:37 PM
New Bumper sticker
MB4 on March 9, 2009 at 1:38 PM
On Twitter.
:)
The problem is that even if it would be an unmitigated disaster for an economy still reeling from the numerous uppercuts, right jabs, and below-the-belt pummeling during the last month or so, people won’t believe it. As long as BO says it’s good, that’s good enough for some folks.
Bob's Kid on March 9, 2009 at 1:39 PM
Reading for comprehension is not getalife’s strong suit. Libtards are more visually oriented. “Did you notice the President’s smile and dreamy eyes?”
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on March 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM
I don’t know which is scarier. That Obama is doing this on purpose or by accident. Either way…it is a long long long four years.
petunia on March 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM
I thought androids don’t run on batteries.
/sarc
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on March 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM
There goes warren, right under the bus.
OmahaConservative on March 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM
If the CardCheck obamaination passes, will the unions target companies that have a history of donating to Republicans? Will the shake down companies for donations?
My family-run company employs almost 100 people. If this infects our business, we will be screwed. Our profit margins are 5% in great times.
WashJeff on March 9, 2009 at 1:44 PM
I think they will target large manufacturing and service companies in right-to-work states first.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 1:45 PM
I am reading the transcript from the Buffet appearance this AM. I found this portion fascinating:
I personally think Buffet was involved with Obama in slowing the machine down to see what happens. What they wanted was to slow it down enough to create enough concern to elect Obama. Obama in perennial campaign mode can’t stop tamping down expectations and massive fear sets in. They started in to slow the machine and now they can’t eliminate the fear they created.
There is a good deal more interesting stuff there. It is pretty clear he is telling Obama to knock off the finger pointing and create confidence. He also makes it clear cramming a bunch of controversial policies through now is bad news. It seems he had more confidence in Obama’s power of speech to create confidence than he did in Obama’s agenda. The whole thing reminds me of Trading Places. Who gets the buck when this is all done?
msmveritas on March 9, 2009 at 1:50 PM
I saw Astrid Menks Buffett & her niece in a thrift shop recently. The niece was buying a huge piece of cloth to make curtains for her sons apartment, and Mrs. Buffett asked for a discount. The clerks told her no, but they bought it anyway. Guess even Mrs. Buffett is worried about the economy?
OmahaConservative on March 9, 2009 at 1:52 PM
So tell me, why did Buffet support Obama? He was had like a lot of people and is trying to backtrack.
tarpon on March 9, 2009 at 1:55 PM
A discount at a thrift store!!! Thank God the clerk said no.
sherry on March 9, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Sorry, I should have included a link to the transcript from Buffet’s appearance this AM. I swear it was Trading Places II. Let’s make the rich poor and the poor rich.
msmveritas on March 9, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Under Obama, you’ll be able to make up a percentage hit to your margin, in volume. That’ll increase your “profit to earnings” ratio http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDM4YzlhNmYyODk4OTAwMDIwMmM0Mjc4MTcwNmMzYjc=
Do they teach economics at Harvard Law, or did the Bed Crapper in Chief choose to take the “Why the Soviet Union Did Not Fail” elective instead?
NoDonkey on March 9, 2009 at 1:58 PM
I’m still waiting for Buffet to do Cheeseburger in Paradise.
whitetop on March 9, 2009 at 2:01 PM
He’s always been kind of a social liberal. Even though he is a capitalist, he has long supported higher taxes. He was showing a bit of hubris about the charity deductions, though, by saying if someone was looking at the tax advantages of giving, they probably weren’t giving much to begin with. I give thousands myself within the limits of the tax deductions. To me, it is as much as I can give without endangering my own financial health as well as making sure I’m in a position to give again the next year. Maybe the amount is pennies to Buffett but its a bit offensive for him to take that stance.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Come, come now comrade. You know you want card check. Nikita C. rightly said that they would take this country without firing a shot. All you see it coming to fruition.
TrickyDick on March 9, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Unlikely the clerks knew who she was, Mrs Buffett dresses low-key and looks like the average middle-aged lady.
OmahaConservative on March 9, 2009 at 2:10 PM
I’m sick of these folks (Brooks, Clive Crook, Buffet) that thought Obama was a mainstream Democrat. Hey Oracle of Omaha, you should have talked to Obama about EFCA before the election. I thought of all people you would have done the research.
Anyone know how much the DCCC and DNC get from the unions? The Democrats would destroy the economy if it meant their coffers were full.
Ted Torgerson on March 9, 2009 at 2:11 PM
I see, she really does look like the woman next door. But to ask for a discount is bizarre. That must be a pretty weird household.
sherry on March 9, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Looks like the oracle is not much of an oracle in the end.
keep the change on March 9, 2009 at 2:19 PM
Buffet is becoming senile and should be avoided at all costs!
The occasional truthism (card checks bad) is not outweighted by his support of The One! No one with any business sense would have supported the Messiah for any reason.
flytier on March 9, 2009 at 2:19 PM
I still don’t get how workers can loose the right to compete for work just because a majority of their co-workers vote for a union. That has got to be unconstitutional.
Count to 10 on March 9, 2009 at 2:22 PM
Yeah, I gotta say, if he didn’t see this natural disaster on wheels coming, he’s just useless.
Might as well go to Keith Oblbermann for financial advice, than Buffet.
NoDonkey on March 9, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Warren’s father Howard was an Omaha, Nebraska businessman and four-term Republican United States Representative with libertarian leanings.
OmahaConservative on March 9, 2009 at 2:30 PM
Buffett’s an azz. Anyone who supported the idiot messiah is a fool who is dangerous to everyone and everything around him. That Buffett is now showing tiny signs of being sensible doesn’t mitigate the incredible harm he inflicted on this nation by backing the moron during the election.
I can’t wait until Buffett goes broke (as his reinsurance comapnies are going to get crushed, eventually – being the umbrella for insurance companies that are being held up by goernment largesse, at the moment). Buffett deserves to end up penniless on the street – with his buddy the idiot messiah next to him.
progressoverpeace on March 9, 2009 at 2:31 PM
Guilt. Or, more accurately, shame of being successful, and made to fear that they may have stolen their wealth rather than having earned it.
Hollywood types seem especially vulnerable to this.
Count to 10 on March 9, 2009 at 2:31 PM
I am telling you, I swear this was some Trading Places experiment. How did Randolph and Mortimer end up?
msmveritas on March 9, 2009 at 2:36 PM
After hearing this I also wonder WHY he supports Obama. He doesnt support his plans, Buffet also lost a ton of his money in the Dow free fall…so far. Lets see if he loses all of his money in this free fall. Then he wont be too happy with the messiah.
becki51758 on March 9, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Heh. I believe you are correct. It’s just a shame, in that Billy Ray Valentine turned out to have some intelligence and was good at the job they put him in. The idiot messiah has the brains of a sparrow, at best. Once again, the left has problems understanding the differences between fantasy and reality. We can only hope that Buffett (and friends) end up like Randolph and Mortimer (but worse!).
progressoverpeace on March 9, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Warren who? We are very busy here at the Treasury.
It is by will alone I set the economy in motion. It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set the economy in motion. Tim Geithner
Mr. Joe on March 9, 2009 at 2:42 PM
I think Buffet is wishing he had tapped Billy Ray instead of ole Barry. He was banking on his power of persuasion to lift the economy out of choke and back into drive. Rush said a little while ago though Obama doesn’t do that, he only knows victimhood. Least effective Obama speech evah, don’t put your money in your mattress, and that was what Buffet and friends were counting on him to do well.
msmveritas on March 9, 2009 at 2:49 PM
Ol’ Warren can forget about any more invites to the White House or getting a Christmas Card. Obama don’t like to be corrected in public.
GarandFan on March 9, 2009 at 2:55 PM
I have no idea what Buffett could have been thinking, other than being overwhelmed by his illusory white guilt (and trying to be “cool”). Buffett earned a reputation not for investing so much as for being able to identify effective managements and buying into their success. I’m sure that, if the idiot messiah were running any business, Buffett would not have invested even a penny in it. But the chance of supporting a black guy to become Precedent … Woo Hoo! Warren the Moron was all go for that.
I have to break with Rush on this. It is far, far worse. The idiot messiah is not about victimhood, but about REVENGE – real revenge. That is all he cares about. Exacting revenge on whites (non-blacks, more generally), the rich, the smart, and Western civilization. The idiot messiah hates them all and wants to make them all pay dearly for making him feel bad about himself. He won’t stop, either, until he is thrown out.
progressoverpeace on March 9, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Nice to see that the crack team at the Obama White House finally got you computer access, Mr. Geithner.
NoDonkey on March 9, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Warren, that’s not being very “neighborly” of you!
Star20 on March 9, 2009 at 3:10 PM
So let me see, Warren Buffet had such great insight that he voted for Obama, and now what The Acting President Obama is reading from his teleprompter now, he is against. Was his judgment bad before, or is it bad now? Your choice.
Me I go with bad judgment before because then there is no need for a decision after.
So there is no point at listening any further to what Buffet has to say about anything.
tarpon on March 9, 2009 at 3:36 PM
For a smart guy, Buffet sure does say some dumb things:
BUFFETT: Well, I think that the first–you have to recognize that it is an economic Pearl Harbor. If you don’t believe that, then why should members of Congress not, you know, why shouldn’t they throw in 8,000 earmarks or do what they’ve been doing? Congress, and I think I said this six months ago, I mean, they’re a patriotic group of people. I don’t think maybe they understood fully, some of them, the gravity of the situation and what is required. What is required is a commander in chief that is looked at as being the commander in chief in a time of war and the support that generally he needs and other things that have to be given up.
Otis B on March 9, 2009 at 3:45 PM
At the rate Obamugabe is going, the dow will be at zero in less than 5 months.
9000 month 1
6700 month 2
4400 month 3
2100 month 4
00 month 5
TheSitRep on March 9, 2009 at 4:02 PM
You have it the wrong way around.
If you want a Dune analogy, I believe the Harkonnens fit the Wall Street side of things. A certain corpulent Baron evokes the image of someone in talk radio, along with a cut-throat culture representative of many businesses, and and a Mentat that has sold himself down the river much like Sanford has done to his own state.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Since it was mentioned in the Goldstein post, I’ll go with the Moby Dick analogy. Obama is Ahab and capitalism is the the great beast. We all know how that worked out for Ahab.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 4:28 PM
I think Warren is going to be speaking a lot more truth now that he doesn’t have any more wealth for Obama to confiscate.
Laura in Maryland on March 9, 2009 at 4:48 PM
Yeah and you don’t hear a lot of sh1t-talk out of Trump these days. The poor bastadge.
TheSitRep on March 9, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Both died.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 4:51 PM
He doesn’t want to be targeted after being outed for his anti-American attitudes on offshoring.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Oh, my….really? I didn’t catch the part where Moby died.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 4:59 PM
One thing that I have noticed in any of the blog entries on cardcheck:
What will happen when the first Walmart is forced to unionize because of cardcheck? My guess is that the store will have the 60 notices ready to send to the local and state governments regarding their closure.
dswardstrom on March 9, 2009 at 5:02 PM
I wouldn’t be surprised and I would hope they get “lost in the mail”.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 5:20 PM
Sorry for any of you who think Buffet thinks got to be a billionaire except by thinking about what was good for his investments but Buffet isn’t an Obama supporter. He is a Buffet supporter and probably wants to unload his health care cost on the government. Thus the Obama support. The loss in Healthcare is a gain for business in many instances. I don’t really see Buffet any deeper than that. My favorite Buffet line is where he points out his secretary pays a higher percentage than he does in taxes and no one really questions him about it on the left. They applaud him for being a leftist supporter. Unbelieveable. They think he wants to pay higher taxes but can’t. Truth is he just knows that he won’t because he is way ahead of the tax man.
Conan on March 9, 2009 at 5:22 PM
Another possibility
They’ll have to put up with some unionization – Jonquiere tactics don’t work if Jonquiere is everywhere.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 5:24 PM
He might be able to effect a temporary escape from taxes, but nobody gets ahead of the Grim Reaper forever.
If you want a Contract with America, get business to agree to be more US-citizen oriented if tax cuts are made.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 5:28 PM
Wow…a union compromise. Another troll mentioned that on another thread. Floating some balloons, I see. I would think you guys would be more concerned about President Obama’s mental exhaustion. You know you are pushing him too hard, don’t you. Give him a break before he makes even bigger blunders than he already has.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 6:12 PM
Pardonme for repeating myself but this is the answer to the dems prayers. Let’s try it in MN to settle the Franken situation. You notice I only mention Franken because that is the way it has been determined it will end up; I digress. We can try the non secret ballot and that way we tie the name of the voter to the vote and then we don’t have to determine intent, do we? When we have the union thugs and ACORN folks standing over the voter while they sign their card and vote we will see a huge victory for Franken and the world will be a better place. Since we will have a true test and better results we can then do away with all secret ballots. The Obama utopia will be one step closer!
Pardonme on March 9, 2009 at 6:14 PM
No, that’s just a matter of if it would bring back the humanity into business.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 6:21 PM
So…now we know you have zero knowledge about business. Keep talking so we will know more about that which you know nothing.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 6:29 PM
If you want to kill off unions, stop giving them the ammunition by actually bringing back the human side of business.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 6:40 PM
I have a job opening. This is what you will do and this is the pay and benefit package that goes with the job. You will be expected to come to work on time and meet certain standards of production in order to maintain your job. These are the standards by which your production will be judged.
What is inhumane about that? If you don’t like it, don’t accept the job.
genso on March 9, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Nothing if and only if that was all that was needed to keep people happy enough to not ask for unions.
This isn’t the 19th century where Scientific Management ruled the day. It’s the 21st, and people are looking to fill the vacuum that has been created by the departure of labor unions as a bulwark against offshoring threats.
sethstorm on March 9, 2009 at 8:49 PM
Buffett has not explicitly “defected” the Obama camp, he still supports Obama, but as I read the transcript, he does not think it prudent to support the more costly elements of Obama’s domestic agenda (global warming, card check, not to mention SOCIALIZED MEDICINE) at this time. This is the political equivalent of Powell supporting the Iraq war as it was being fought, but publicly stating that he was against it from the start. I digress.
Recall last week that Buffett, ever the optimist, said in his letter to Berkshire shareholders that he thought the U.S. economy was in “shambles” and that the recession would likely last through 2009 and probably beyond. Buffett strongly supports Obama so talking down the economy is not something he takes lightly. Unlike Obama, Buffett knows that the market is not a “poll”, and Buffett’s words were carefully chosen to convey a meaning to global markets.
Smart Republicans should be using Buffetts words to stall Obama’s domestic policy as smart Democrats used General Powell’s words to stall Bush foreign policy. : )
Angry Dumbo on March 9, 2009 at 9:39 PM
I have wondered if political stupidity trumps business acumen.
Apparently so.
SKYFOX on March 10, 2009 at 5:18 AM
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